rsk@oldfield.cs.colostate.edu (Rich Kulawiec) (01/16/90)
CNN is reporting that AT&T says that some sort of major disruption of long-distance service started around 2:30 pm EST today. I've been unable to reach area codes 415, 317, 213, and 312; each attempt yields an "all circuits are busy" recording. CNN says that AT&T does not know the source of the trouble. Rich Kulawiec [Moderator's Note: As of 10 PM CST Monday night (as I am typing this), WGN-TV is interviewing an AT&T spokesperson who says the source of the problem is not yet known, but it is believed to be a software glitch. The problem is nationwide, resulting in many (most?) calls reaching an intercept message, 'Your call did not go through' (here in Chicago). The spokesperson said they are working frantically on the problem, but may not have service entirely restored before 'sometime Tuesday'. About half of my calls completed okay Monday evening, the other half failed. The network failure has caused considerable congestion on MCI/Sprint lines; and of course, as Higdon points out in the next message, some alternate carriers in fact use AT&T circuits for some of their calls. PT]